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Worth reading

Six years ago I wrote a book called Uncle Sam's Plantation. I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it.

I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas -- a poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.

I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing, and Food Stamps.

A vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960s, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty.

A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?"

Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems -- the kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others.

The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families.

Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is.

I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican Congress and signed 50 percent.

I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth-producing American capitalism.

But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction.

Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism.

Uncle Sam has welcomed our blacks onto the plantation and they have said, "Thank you, Suh."

Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash.

There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young president. And maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the plantation.

In an op-ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is clear that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is much more than short term economic stimulus.

"This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America 's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, healthcare, and education."

Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to think that government taking over an economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government can take place "with unprecedented transparency and accountability."

Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he created the Department of Energy, the Synfuels Corporation, and the Department of Education.

Or how about the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 -- The War on Poverty -- which President Johnson said "...does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty.."

Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black families are not, with triple the incidence of single-parent homes and out-of-wedlock births.

It's not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama's invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom.

Does anyone really need to think about what the choice should be?

"The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

It has always made me wonder why the majority of the American Black population choose to ignor information like this. It matters not if it comes from Cosby, Walter Williams and any number of Black educators,columnists, talk show hosts etc., it always seems to get trumped by the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons.

As long as the dumbing down of America continues in our school system, it will be only the very few that will see through the corruption of the black socialist agenda. Until they, and any of the other minorities, come to the realization that only the responsible individual can overcome the teachings of Jackson, Sharpton et al., and find the true freedoms our Constitution was fought for.

That article strikes particularly close to our neck of the woods. We have a large population of 'Native' Americans, as they are want to be called in this PC era. But many of these Americans have discovered the capitalist way of life, and have taken their lives into their own hands, taking pride in what they have received by their own hard work, and ingenuity. But the 'easy' SFN life of the reservation is still a crutch for far too many. It's a demeaning and lazy form of listening to many of their leaders, who only want more handouts and freebies. Like the Sharpton/Jackson led Blacks, these Indians are led to believe they are 'owed', and if not 'given', they will 'take'; what a breeding ground for crime and corruption.

Starr has the misfortune of following a philosophy of conservatism that brands her as an oreo by the SFN leadership. And the present day main stream press is equally willing to put down any conservative views, regardless of where they are being practiced or by whom they are spoken.

Being a much younger man than I, Matt, you may have the good fortune of seeing a time when the message from the conservative aisle in a minority crowd will be applauded, and believed. I won't. I will, however, continue to espouse the views of the rugged individual, and fight to keep the freedoms this nation was founded on...to my grave.

UB

When the one you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure.